Alleged rolling domestic in Lower Pottsgrove ends with pleas

COURTHOUSE — A former Spring-Ford Area High School band director and his female acquaintance each face several years of court supervision after their “rolling domestic” altercation while driving vehicles along Route 422 ended in a crash in Lower Pottsgrove.

John Edward Eckstine Jr., 45, of Hagerstown, Md., who resigned as band director after his arrest in May, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Monday to four years’ probation and 60 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering other persons in connection with the May 2 incident that ended on East High Street in Lower Pottsgrove.

Jacqueline M. Alegado, 48, of the first block of Castle Drive, Limerick, was sentenced to five years’ probation and 36 hours of community service after she pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault by a prisoner, recklessly endangering another person and ethnic intimidation in connection with her role in the incident.

As conditions of their sentences, Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who accepted plea agreements in the cases against Eckstine and Alegado, ordered Eckstine to have no contact with Alegado and ordered Alegado to write letters of apology to emergency medical technicians and the driver of another vehicle struck by Alegado during the incident.

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Alegado also must continue with counseling, the judge said.

Eckstine is the former director of instrumental music and former director of the Golden Rams Marching Band at Spring-Ford Area High School.

Police, based on witness reports, alleged the pair engaged in what they previously called a “rolling domestic,” weaving in and out of traffic along Route 422 about 7 p.m. May 2, before exiting Route 422 and ending up on East High Street.

Lower Pottsgrove Police Officer David Slothower responded to a two-vehicle crash in the 2500 block of East High Street and found Alegado behind the wheel of a white Chevrolet sedan and Eckstine standing near the driver’s side door of the Chevrolet with scratches on his neck, according to the arrest affidavit.

Slothower asked both Eckstine and Alegado if they were hurt and neither said they were. Eckstine told police he was in a separate vehicle that was past the crash scene.

Slothower went to check on the third party, the driver of the second car that was involved in the crash, when he saw Eckstine “slapping the window on Alegado’s driver’s door with his right hand ... trying to get Alegado to open the door,” according to the criminal complaint. Slothower noted in the arrest affidavit that he told Eckstine to step away from Alegado’s vehicle, and Eckstine responded that he wanted his cell phone back from Alegado.

Investigators learned about an earlier incident involving Alegado and Eckstein on Route 422. At about 6:30 p.m. off-duty officers encountered the pair arguing and separated the pair, court papers indicate. Eckstine “admitted he had dealt with police because Alegado had thrown his keys and credit cards onto Route 422.”

When officers spoke with Alegado, she showed them an injury to her right knee which she said happened when Eckstine pushed her down earlier while they were along Route 422, according to the court papers. Alegado also showed police a torn fingernail and told police Eckstine “started to chase her in his car” when they were along Route 422, and they were “weaving in and out of traffic until the accident occurred.”

When police spoke with Eckstine and asked him how he got the scratches on his neck, he told police Alegado keyed his car and he pushed her, and she got back up and tried to scratch and punch him with her car keys, police wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Several witnesses stopped at the crash scene after being passed by Alegado and Eckstine.

“The witnesses stated that both were driving recklessly weaving in and out of traffic, at a high rate of speed and without care for general public safety,” Slothower wrote in the criminal complaint.

Witnesses testified previously at a preliminary hearing that they believed they were observing “road rage” and that “it looked like one was chasing the other,” specifying that the white car operated by Alegado was in front of a blue vehicle operated by Eckstine.

The female driver of a Pontiac that eventually was struck by Alegado’s vehicle previously testified that she was on her way home from work when the white car “pulled right out in front of me and struck my passenger side.”

Police took both Eckstine and Alegado into custody and transported them to Pottstown Police Department. As Alegado was taken into custody, she allegedly claimed she was suffering from seizures and Goodwill Ambulance was called to the scene. Police alleged Alegado struggled with emergency medical technicians as they tried to treat her.

Alegado uttered a racial slur word to a black EMT and then spit in the face of a female EMT, according to court documents.

Other charges of stalking, disorderly conduct, harassment and careless driving were dismissed against Eckstine as part of his plea agreement.

Charges of aggravated and simple assault, false reports to law enforcement authorities, disorderly conduct, harassment and careless driving were dismissed against Alegado as part of her plea agreement.